ELL PDA Webinar March 11, 2010

The BMS ELL PDA team is most excited about how receptive teachers have been to implementing SIOP instruction in the classroom.

• Our most daunting challenge as a school is still to get reluctant learners motivated.



• Cindy Hunt's blog: http://bazingmysterisunraveled.blogspot.com/



• Cindy Hunt is working on information to give new teachers for SIOP training.



• Dr. Stefanie Underwood has contacted Cindy Hunt concerning additional training with Decatur City School systems. Plan to sit down to discuss specific training needs. Mrs. Renick suggested that Cindy Hunt plan to spend time at New Teacher Academy incorporating SIOP instruction.



• SHARING KEY INFORMATION: faculty meetings, data meetings, and BBSST/LPAC meetings are where BMS shared key student information.



• FOCUSED CLASSROOM VISITS: Faculty and staff observe implementation of SIOP strategies in the specified general education classrooms. Accountability is built in--teachers are to discuss strategies during grade level meetings. Teachers must participate in walk throughs to be able to participate. Dr. Collier said that the team is composed of energetic educators who are getting teachers excited. Mrs. Thompson said that students are so excited about going to class and participating in engaging learning activities.



• Walkthrough Examples- once we have modeled a strategy, the walk-through models the strategy. Our ELL focus is to see who is using the strategies and who needs additional strategies.



• CO-PLANNING- Grade level meetings where we discuss highlighted strategies. Our school is using our model for other schools in the system. State department is using BMS training model of our strategic teaching model.



• PROFESSIONAL LEARNING COMMUNITIES/STUDY GROUPS- BMS ELL PDA meeting has met once monthly and collaborated with emails. Book study this year is Resilience Revolution by Larry K. Brendtro and Scott J. Larson. Book studies are in grade level meetings and are discussed in grade levels. Pam suggests the book Myths and Realities - common myths about ELLs and is very teacher-focused book that is written in chunks that could be divided monthly by topic. Cohort III will be using Jana Echevarria's 4th Edition Sheltered Instruction for ELL with Diverse Abilities as a book study and hopefully led by ALSDE Regional Coaches via distance tools. (Will Dr. Underwood be purchasing this book??) Dr. Underwood is interested in content specific training.



• Cindy Hunt will be on spring break next week and is hoping to meet with Dr. Underwood soon.



• DEMONSTRATION LESSONS



• FOCUS ON VOCABULARY- Kate Kinsella from San Francisco State University. Content-focused vocabulary is needed for all students.We need to foster a school-wide belief that a powerful command of vocabulary and academic language is vital to academic and social mobility and success. Academic language is a constant struggle for ELL students. Google her name and you can add all kinds of links--has individual strategies for teachers.



• DEVELOPMENT OF WORD KNOWLEDGE- word attack skills should include a knowledge of prefixes, suffixes, and word roots. Teachers should help students by asking them how a word is employed in a sentence. Cloze activities are examples of structured opportunities for writing. Structured Oral Practice: 1. Turn to your partner and ask what has happened recently that made him/her _________(put vocab word in blank) 2. What other images might we associate with ___________ Think 1 or 2, then turn to your partner and discuss.



• INDEX CARD DICTIONARY- Once a word is identified, ask the student for related words and for synonyms and antonyms, if they exist. Encourage the student to write each new word on an index card with the meaning, a picture, and/or a sentence on the back. Review the word cards on an ongoing basis.



• INTERACTIVE NOTEBOOK- Hastings said that she varies strategies used in the interactive notebooks. Left side of notebook is used to apply the concept. Lee Hasting will have students write a fictional story using their vocabulary. Students came up with different kinds of accidents related to the three laws of motions. Lee might have to give some students prompts to lead them into a fictional story. Mrs. Thompson will choose fifteen vocabulary words and students will have to write a poem or a rap. Thompson stated that this is working well with students. Hasting said that some students are still early in their English language aquisition and will work with a partner to have some translation in their native language. Burgos uses the Elmo to model the work with them. ELMOs help to provide visual models to ELL and Special Education students.



• Power Teaching- kinesthetic learning, highly condensed teaching. TeacherTube.com has several videos to get examples. (Whole Brain Learning) Hastings and Burgos have used this to do cell cycle in English and Spanish. It took the students just a minute and they got it right away. Students are very engaged.



• TIERS OF EVALUATION- Organizational Change, Teacher Practice, Student Outcomes



• TWO DAY FORUM- May 5 and 6



• Where are we now? Essential next steps as you strive to implement your Action Plan

Start the year focused on Power Teaching because it is whole brained and goes along with 4MAT as well as teach ART strategies with a focus on After Reading Stragies as a refresher because when you hear something a second or third time it can really jump out at you. The After is where a lot of our ELL s are faltering according to Pam. Pam says this is a clever approach. Before and during reading are highlighted in most classes. A lot of assumptions are made in After Reading that could be improved upon per Pam. Burgos discussed how we would like to include a dictionary section in the data notebook. Students will add to this section of the data notebook. Each class will build upon another class. We want students to understand the connections between classes and subjects in the academic vocabulary realm.